Titanic/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby A robot stands at the bow of a ship with its arms raised. ROBOT: I am the king. Of the world. Woo. Woo. Woooo. The robot is a character in a movie being watched by Moby and a bunch of his robot friends, including Jazz Bot. They are sitting on a couch in Tim's living room. ROBOT: (voice on television) Rose. Rose. I love you, Rose. All of the robots beep and cry. Jazz Bot plays jazz saxophone. Tim wearing a chef's hat, walks into the room. TIM Hey would you guys keep it down, I was trying to cooking a- ROBOT: (voice on television) Woooooo. TIM: Oh Brother! Are you having another Titanic crying party? Moby nods his head, yes. Jazz Bot plays a note and a letter pops out of his saxophone. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, What was the Titanic? From, Caleb. All right. The RMS Titanic was an enormous passenger ship. An animation shows the Titanic. TIM: It sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912 after it hit an iceberg. More than 1,500 people lost their lives. An animation shows a sinking Titanic surrounded by icebergs. TIM: At the time, the Titanic was the biggest ship in the world, and was believed by many to be unsinkable. Nevertheless, it sank on its maiden voyage, or first trip out to sea. An image shows The New York Times headline announcing that the Titanic sank four hours after it hit an iceberg. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Titanic means huge, and that was definitely the right name. It was about as long as three football fields, and taller than the Statue of Liberty. An image shows the length of the Titanic as being the same as the three football fields shown below it. It is also taller than the Statue of Liberty which appears next to it. TIM: But in the public imagination, Titanic was more than just a big ship. An image shows a boy with his parents viewing a poster that reads "Titanic to New York." TIM: It was the latest symbol of mankind's unstoppable progress. Science and technology were taming nature, putting it under human control. Images show the Titanic alongside the Wright Brother's airplane, a steam locomotive, an early automobile, the Eiffel Tower with radio waves beaming off it, and an early telephone. TIM: It seemed like we were creating a world of total comfort and safety. An image shows the same boy with his parents viewing an animated poster depicting a future world of people driving flying machines. TIM: And Titanic marked a big step toward that future world. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, the ship wasn't all that fast, but it was incredibly luxurious. There was a squash court, a Turkish bath, a gym, you name it. An image shows well-dressed couples walking down an elegant stairway onboard the ship. TIM: The most expensive ticket cost close to $100,000 in today's money and several famous millionaires were on board. But most people on the ship didn't have access to all that luxury. Third class passengers stayed in the lower decks, in much tighter quarters. An image shows people dressed in more casual clothes sitting close together at long dining room tables. MOBY: Beep? TIM: In reality, Titanic's safety features weren't all that different from other luxury liners. But it was so big, it was hard to imagine it could ever sink. An animation shows the Titanic sailing into a tiny island.The island sinks. TIM: Anyway, the ship set out from England, on April 10th, 1912. Four days later, tragedy struck. A map of England, France and the Atlantic Ocean shows the ship's route across the ocean. A big X is placed over the spot where the ship will sink in the middle of the ocean. TIM: There was no radar, GPS, or anything like that back then. All Titanic had were lookouts, guys who scanned the water for danger. An animation shows two lookouts. One man is looking through binoculars. TIM: It was a moonless night, so the lookouts didn't see the iceberg until it was right in front of the ship. An animation shows the lookouts on the ship's bow as the ship gets closer and closer to the iceberg. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, the crew put the engines in reverse and turned the wheel as hard as possible. Ironically, Titanic's immense size worked against it. The ship was simply too big to turn away quickly. For ten seconds, its right side scraped along the iceberg. An animation shows the ship's right side scraping the iceberg. TIM: The impact crumpled the ship's outer skin, popping out bolts that held its steel plates together. That opened up holes below the waterline, letting seawater pour into the ship. An animation shows what happened to the ship after it scraped against the iceberg as Tim describes. An alarm sounds. MOBY: Beep? TIM: No, it didn't go down right away. But as more and more water poured into the hull, the extra weight pulled the front of the ship down. An animation shows the front of the ship sinking into the water as its back lifts up into the sky. People in lifeboats row away from the ship. TIM: In less than three hours, Titanic broke in half under its own weight, and sank to the ocean floor. The animation shows the ship breaking in half and sinking. TIM: Out of more than 2,200 people on board, only about 700 made it into the lifeboats, some of which launched less than half full. An animation shows a half-full lifeboat with the ship sinking in the background. TIM: But even if they'd all been filled, there weren't enough boats for everyone on the ship. MOBY: Beep! Moby shakes his fist. TIM: Believe it or not, back then, the number of lifeboats was based on the size of the ship, not how many passengers it could carry. Since women and children were put on lifeboats first, most women in the first and second class sections lived, while most men died. An image shows a lifeboat with women, children, and elderly people in it. TIM: Most third-class passengers didn't know how to find lifeboats through the ship's mazelike passageways. MOBY: Beep? Moby holds up a lifejacket. TIM: There were plenty of life vests, but you can't stay alive for very long in freezing cold water. Anyway, before the ship sank, the crew used its radio to call for help, and a few hours later, the RMS Carpathia rescued the survivors. An animation shows the RMS Carpathia sailing near a lifeboat full of people. TIM: News of the disaster shocked the world. If Titanic could sink on its very first outing, how safe was this future we were building? The ship that had stood for mankind's confidence instantly became a symbol of our overconfidence. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Almost immediately, the U.S. and British governments launched investigations into the disaster. Those led to the first international safety codes for passenger ships. An image shows government officials meeting. TIM: From then on, ships had to have enough lifeboats to fit everyone onboard. They had to maintain radio contact with other ships, and the shore, if possible. Any new ships had to follow certain design codes, so they'd be tougher to sink. Images of a lifeboat, radio tower, and ship blueprint illustrate the safety measures that Tim describes. TIM: And an International Ice Patrol was formed to keep track of conditions in the North Atlantic. An image shows the Ice Patrol's logo and a member of the patrol tracking icebergs from the deck of a ship. TIM: As for the Titanic itself, it was found on the seafloor in 1985. An image shows a submarine shining a light on the ship's wreckage, laying on the ocean floor. TIM: And that's the story. So what do you think, guys? Do we still put too much faith in technology? Is Titanic a cautionary tale for our times? The robots murmur and are all busy with their laptops, cell phones, and listening to music. TIM: Look who I'm asking. 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